Special Thanks to Eli Chitrik

Makos 9a

Rashi in our Gemara has a very harsh opinion regarding a Ben Noach.

1. He maintains that a Ben Noach does not require a warning, he therefore is punished for his transgressions even if they were not done with full knowledge- they were done inadvertently, b’shogeg.
   
   Both the Rambam and the Ramban object to this. They contend that nobody can be punished by the court for (shogeg) transgressions which were done inadvertently. Although a ben Noach need not receive a formal warning in order to be punished, it must still be clear that his transgression was intentional.                             We mentioned a letter of the Rebbe that the Rambam is of the opinion that a ben Noach is punished just for not accepting upon himself the 7 Mitzvahs! (If you find the letter please post in comments).

 

2- The Gemara mentions that had Yosef Hatzadik sinned with the wife of Potiphar he would have be liable to ‘misas beis din“. An ‘Egyptian-Ben Noach-Court’…….

3- We discussed that if a Jew has relations with a married ‘goya‘; does this transgress the law of ‘aishes ish” or not.  Tosafos in Makos and in Sanhedrin (26 and 72?).

4- We touched upon the subject of whether the Jews before Mattan Torah had the status of Jews or not.

A very unique opinion is taken by Yehudah Rozanis (See here in English Hebrew) the famous Rabbi who lived in Constantinople (modern day Istanbul) He wrote the famous commentary on the Rambam called Mishnah L’melech.

In his Sefer ‘Poroshas Derachim‘ he quotes the various opinions concerning the “religious status” of the Shevatim.

Here is one school of thought:

They definitely had the status of a Jew – but only to be more stringent. Meaning that although they kept all the Mitzvos, they were only obligated to keep Mitzvos when it was a “chumrah”, but not if they would be able to be lenient by considering themselves as Jews. They could not use their Jewishness to be less “Frum”!

For Example: Eiver Min Hachai:

Both a Jew and non-Jew alike are prohibited to eat a live animal.

However there is a  difference between a Jew and non-Jew on how this law applies.

A Jew, once the animal is slaughtered is permitted to eat the animal instantly even if the animal still has some life left. (In Halachik terms mefarcheses’)This because the slaughtering has an affect that the animal is no longer considered “Eiver Min Hachai”.

A non-Jew however, is not allowed to eat the animal until it has no life left in it, period, regardless of whether it was slaughtered or not. This is because slaughtering has no effect on the status of the animal; all we care about is that it should be a dead animal.

Thus by observing the laws of Shechita (as in this case) you are actually obligated to less!

Reb Yehudah Rozanis explains that this was also the argument of the Yosef and his brothers.

 

Yosef told his father that the Shevatim were eating “Eiver Min Hachai”. Can it really be that the Shevatim were transgressing such a harsh sin?

The answer is that they were eating flesh of an animal after Shechita but prior to the animal dying.

 

Why? Because the brothers were of the opinion that even before Mattan Torah they had the status of a full Jew. Therefore once they slaughtered the animal they were allowed to eat from it, even if it had some life left.

However, Yosef their brother maintained that while it is true that descendants of Avrohom  have the status of Jews and have to keep all commandments, this is only if the result leads to a stricter code of law because t of the Mitzvos.  If in any way you become more lenient as a result of keeping Mitzvos then one needs to revert back to the status of a Ben Noach and must keep their stringency’s as well.

Therefore eating the flesh of this animal would be prohibited – since it is prohibited to a Ben Noach.

 

More on this next week IY”H.